Throughout the day, local Mexican whalewatch guides from Puerto Lopez Mateos shared their whales and expertise with us as we enjoyed Zodiac tours of the inside waters of the beautiful protected lagoon system. We enjoyed watching the antics of the newborn gray whales and their interactions with their mothers. At times the fifteen-foot babies would surface near our small rubber boats, even raising an obviously curious eye above the surface. The gray whales were also seen accompanied by ubiquitous bottlenose dolphins playing and bowriding their larger cousins.
Undulating sculpted barrier island sand dunes provide sanctuary for the mothers and calves from the frenetic wave energy of the Pacific Ocean. Gray whales are long-voyaging mammals that travel some five thousand miles from arctic seafloor feeding areas to the shallow protected waterways of Baja California to give birth. We were fortunate to be able to see these dark gray newborn whales at the beginning of their lives. And in a sense, we ourselves were ambassadors for our species as these new creatures observed us.
